INS v. Aguirre-Aguirre

Aguirre-Aguirre (defendant), a Guatemalan political activist opposed to the government, participated with his group in burning ten buses and beating passengers who refused to disembark, as part of a broader campaign of property destruction and attacks on police that the group carried out to avoid casualties where possible but still resorted to violence against noncompliant bystanders. The Board of Immigration Appeals denied him withholding of deportation, finding he had committed a 'serious nonpolitical crime' before entering the United States. The Ninth Circuit held the Board applied the wrong standard and remanded; the government sought Supreme Court review.